Chapter 1 | UCLA

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You are a senior soccer player for UCLA and one of the top players in the country. You have always played striker and have become the top scorer on the team. You have all the NWSL teams wanting you to play for them. Younger, you played on the Youth National Teams and traveled almost all over the world to play in tournaments. Right now, you are playing for the Championship against Cal Berkeley.

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You take deep breaths as it was the second half of the game. The score was 1-2, and your team needed that extra point to tie the game. The ref blew her whistle, and Cal Berkeley started with the ball.

You immediately pushed forward to apply pressure to the opponent's midfielders. From training, you were able to strike at the right moment to gain the ball back, so you patiently stood ready, reading the player's body movement. She then tried to fake a right and move the ball to the left, but you were ready.

With your foot, you easily stopped the ball from moving, and while she tried to move forward, her momentum became her downfall as she completely lost the ball. The UCLA crowd cheered as you took the ball down the field, protecting it to avoid other player. You kept it close to you, knowing opponents struggled stealing the ball from you. You look up and saw one of your teammate/ best friend running down the sideline waving her hand.

You smirk and with a beautiful serve, the ball went in the air right in front of her so she could keep going. She was confronted with a defender, but easily moved past as she did a Maradona making the crowd go even more crazy.

You were now getting closer to the net, ready for the cross. Your friend gave a strong pass, the ball rolling in between a player's legs and you saw the opening. With your right foot, you connected with the ball and aimed it your left side of the net, confusing the goalie as she was expecting it to go right. The sound of the ball hitting the back of the net was the most satisfying sound ever, and you jumped up in celebration as you kept your team in the game.

The first person to come to you was your friend, as she jumped into your arms and wrapped her legs around you to celebrate. She kissed the top of your head, "fuck yeah, let's frickin' go!" She yelled.

"Great serve Jess," you smiled from ear to ear. Soon, all the other players came over into a massive group hug, patting you on the back.

"Scoring for the UCLA Bruins, (y/n) (l/n)!" Sound the person over the loudspeakers. Half the crowd went wild and cheered. You looked up and saw a couple people holding up cutouts of your face plastered on them, moving them around and cheering very loud. You gave a thumbs up and jogged back to the middle of the field.

The rest of the game went back and forth, both teams fighting for dominance and taking shots when there was an opening, but both goalies proved to be of great skill. The game went into overtime, and eventually into shootouts. You groaned, knowing that was huge pressure on everyone.

The coin was flipped to see who would go first, and the other team won it. You were part of the people shooting, and you stood in a line on the field with the others who would also be taking shots. You and your teammates had their arms around the people next to them on their shoulders as you watched the first girl take the ball and place it on the white line in the goalie box.

Your goalie had been practicing for such an occasion like this and she had made tons of improvements. The ref blew her whistle, and the girl ran up to the ball to place it on the top right corner of the goal but was saved with the goalie's left hand stretching just
enough to block it.

You and your teammates cheered and congratulated the goalie from afar. Switching off, the first teammate of yours was able to put the ball back of the net, gaining even more confidence in everyone.

Striker (Christen Press x fem reader)Where stories live. Discover now